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Johannesburg - Talk of the US Fed scaling back on their bond-buying programme sooner rather than later continued to drive the JSE which remained weak along with other global markets at midday.
At 12:08 pm‚ the JSE All Share [JSE:J203] index was down 1.06% with the blue chip top 40 index 1.10% lower.
Offshore markets were firmly in the red with the FTSE 100 down 1.14% and the Paris CAC 40 slipping 1.02%.
“The market is down on global factors. It’s mainly on the mixed views surrounding the US Fed and which path they will take on their asset repurchase programme. There are signals that their stimulus may not last as long as the market had anticipated‚” said Lethu Malimela‚ portfolio manager at Sasfin Securities.
Miners where once again the biggest losers with the gold mining index falling 2.91% and the platinum sector losing 2.62%. General resources were down 0.72%
Financials were down 1.23%‚ while industrials reversed Wednesday’s gains‚ down 1.11%.
Platinum stocks tumbled as the price of the metal had lost 0.85%‚ to $1463.50 an ounce‚ by 12:07.
“There is no reason to expect any improvement in the short term. It is likely that markets will remain weak‚” Malimela said
Among individual shares‚ Lonmin (LON) led losses among platinum stocks shedding 3.96% to R41.98. Anglo American Platinum (AMS) was down 3.17% to R305.02 and Northam (NHM) fell 1.51% to R35.11.
Among gold stocks Anglogold Ashanti (ANG) lost 3.89% to R160.51 and Gold Fields (GFI) shed 2.87% to R58.196. Harmony (HAR) slumped 4.38% to R37.77
In the banking sector Capitec (CPI) added 1.16% to R186.05‚ while African bank (ABL) was off 2.15% at R16.40.
Insurers were mostly down with Old Mutual (OML) falling 3.15% to R27.98 and Sanlam (SLM) giving up 3.10% to R42.54.
Retailers surprised after falling on Wednesday on the release of poor retail sales numbers. Shoprite (SHP)) advanced 2.90% to R167 and Truworths (TRU) added 1.66% to R77.94.
“There is a hunt for earnings across the sectors as we are seeing more volatile and less predictable earnings in resources‚” said Malimela.
Rand hedge stocks weakened as the rand strengthened through R10/$ with heavyweight British American Tobacco (BTI) dropping 1.66% to R540.09‚ Richemont (CFR) sliding 3.09% to R86.25 and SABMiller (SAB) softening 2.45% to R490.22
